The Train of Thought Lounge: J Dilla

For this week's installment of the The Lounge, I wanted to pay homage to one of the most influential and innovative beatmakers in the history of hip-hop, J Dilla. Tomorrow would have marked Dilla's 35th birthday, had he not lost his battle with Lupus in February 2006. The Detroit native was a founding member of the group Slum Village and also worked with a countless number of artists ranging from Busta Rhymes to The Roots to A Tribe Called Quest to Common to The Pharcyde, among many, many others.

The first song I want to share features my favorite marble-mouthed spittin', supervillain persona-adopting MC, MF DOOM, on an unreleased track named "Sniper Elite":

Sniper Elite (prod. J Dilla) - MF Doom

Some of you may recognize that beat as "Anti-American Graffiti" off of Dilla's brilliant album of instrumentals, Donuts. That particular instrumental was one of my favorites (hard to choose from so many) and DOOM's flow -- or rather haphazard, staccato rhyming style -- fits incredibly well here.

Next up, I present to you one of Dilla's signature tracks, 1995's "Runnin'" which he produced for The Pharcyde. This song instantly puts me in mind of 1990's hip-hop. Plain and simple, the opening loop comes on and in my mind, I'm about to watch Shaq and the Orlando Magic face Reggie Miller, Detlef Schrempf, Rik Smits and the Pacers from Market Square Arena on the NBA on NBC (that whole last part was also imagined in the voice of Marv Albert. Yes!)

Runnin - The Pharcyde

Finally, I'll leave you with the video for "Won't Do" from 2006's The Shining, which was released three days before his death. The part of Dilla is played by his younger brother, Illa J, who is an aspiring rapper himself . The visually-stunning video spotlights some more of the various artists who either worked with or were inspired by J Dilla.



Not only do I absolutely love this beat, but the tributes from his friends and family at the end of the video are especially heart-warming to me.

Rest in peace, J Dilla.

Lane Kiffin is not very bright

Today:

"Just so you know, when a recruit is on another campus, you can't call him," Kiffin said. "I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn't get him."

That would be a pretty damning quote if calling a recruit on another campus WAS a violation:

Kiffin's accusation is false, because there is no NCAA rule that prohibits a coach from calling a prospect while he's visiting another school during a contact period. This past weekend was a contact period.

"There is no rule that would prohibit Coach Meyer from calling a prospect at Tennessee on a Friday or Saturday during an official visit during a contact period," said Jamie McCloskey, UF's NCAA compliance director. "There's never been a rule. I've been doing this for a long time. Not only has there never been a rule, there's never been a discussion about having a rule.

But Lane "5-15" Kiffin wasn't done:

Kiffin also took aim at Alabama coach Nick Saban and suggested that Saban should "thank" new Tennessee assistant Lance Thompson for the Crimson Tide's No. 2-ranked class. Thompson was one of Saban's best recruiters at Alabama before leaving to join the Tennessee staff in January.

Look, I have no problem with coaches who talk shit. But you need to back it up with something.

A national title?

A conference title?

A winning season?

A season with more than four wins?

Hell, that's so easy even last year's Tennessee team could do it!

In addition to the hilariousness of Kiffin "calling out" two of the most successful coaches in the modern era (3 BCS titles between them), you have to wonder if he knows what he's getting into.

If there are two coaches that I would not want to piss off, it's Meyer and Saban, who have been fairly ruthless at getting their revenge.

You can ask Knowshon Moreno how that turns out:

This is not the type of team you should be giving extra motivation.

Judd Gregg's awesome bipartisanship

Judd Gregg after being appointed secretary of commerce:

This is not a time for partisanship. This is a time to govern, and govern well.

Judd Gregg earlier, in the very same speech:

I also want to that thank the Governor of New Hampshire for his courtesy and courage in being willing to make this possible through the agreement we have relative to my successor in the Senate.

So this is not the time for partisanship, unless it means a partisan act that allows Republicans to get what they want. That's called "courage".

Then it's Gregg who shows a true act of courage by refusing aid the Democrats with desperately needed vote on the stimulus bill he supports. How post-partisan of him!

Gregg, a conservative Republican who once proposed abolishing the department of commerce that he will now head, could be the worst choice yet, for any post.

I'm sure we'll start revisiting those historically sound arguments that it's not the personnel it's the policy, but frankly anyone who believes still believes that it's not important who heads important cabinet positions because of... OBAMA has been partying with Michael Phelps.

We should ask Larry Summers how much he's enjoying using his right wing credentials to secretly pass a progressive agenda of tax cuts and corporate giveaways.

Actually, just ask Judd Gregg, who Obama told to work on "entitlement reform".

Sweet Jesus this is insane.

Joe the Selfless Hero

From Think Progress:

“It’s not politically incorrect to say you’re Republican or conservative,” Joe said. “They need to dig their heels in and fight for what needs to be done.” […]

One thing that needs to be done, he said, is killing this stimulus package, because it’s just another example of “American government” — Republicans and Democrats — “kicking our butts left and right.” He also called it welfare.

When asked if he has a career in politics, Wurzelbacher said, “I don’t know if the American public deserve me, but my son definitely deserves my time now.”

To quote Craig Mack, I think Joe wants to go down in the Guiness book of world records as the dumbest motherfucker alive.

And if you're wondering what Joe's latest gig is, he's advising the House Republicans on the economic stimulus package.

And no, I'm not joking.

Republicans: “I got a list of demands”

There’s been a lot of debate about the stimulus bill lately, composed of both legitimate complaints and hilariously transparent partisan nonsense. After unanimously voting against the bill, House Republicans have published a list of provisions that they find objectionable- totaling an astonishing 2% of the overall amount. That’s right: Republican efforts to shoot down the entire thing were based on finding less than 20 of the overall $900 billion to be unacceptable. Even many of the things on the list are highly debatable, such as:

• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes
of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

Money dedicated to maintaining NIH? Upgrading community colleges with modern electronics? Improving the Smithsonian? I’m outraged at the idea of taxpayer money doing any of that, these institutions are supposed to magically fund themselves!

In all seriousness I thought this was a pretty sad attempt at a list of objections- until I made a shocking discovery. Logging onto TrainNet this morning I saw that an anonymous informant had delivered a second list of GOP complaints, which they plan to release to the press soon. The first list must have been a warm-up, because this one exposes the unreasonable demands Obama has made of the American taxpayers:

• $750 million for finally building the Bridge to Nowhere-
out of solid gold.

• $1.6 billion to create and maintain a database of useless
provisions included in the stimulus bill.

• $30 billion to engrave a transcript of the Finkelstein &
Cockburn debates on the surface of the moon.

• $10 billion in singles for Obama to burn in the White House
Furnace while he cackles fiendishly at the plight of frozen
white southerners.

• $1.73 missing from the stimulus bill, found later beneath
the cushions of the Congressional Couch.

• $900 million for replacing every school lunch served in
the city of Plano, Texas during the week of February 23rd
with expensive (yet poorly cooked and shoddily served) filet
mignon.

• $25 billion for developing Holo-Gore, a malevolent
holographic Al Gore which will relentlessly chide
carbon-emitters.

• $290 billion for purchasing the finest colored sand in
the world, which will be used to create the largest
mandala in the history of the universe.

• $35 billion to create a huge underground swimming pool
beneath the White House. It’ll be a state of the art
facility, but Republicans have objected because President
“Bipartisan” Obama only plans on inviting Democrats over
for a swim once it’s complete :(

• $800 million to a bank account in Nigeria, where Congress
has just been informed via email that they’ve won the
national lottery. All they have to do is place the money in
a Nigerian account to establish their claim on the prize,
and then this provision will pay for itself!

These all do represent a huge waste of money, other than that last one of course. Hopefully Republicans will stick to their guns on this one and make sure that helping the economy is as difficult and politically wrenching as possible. They just have to tell the Democrats that they have a list of demands written on the palms of their hands, gonna ball their fists and let everybody know where they stand.

Why take meaningful actions when you can use meaningless words?

Some strong words this weekend from President Obama and Senator Dodd in response to the news that Bank executives receiving bailout money are still handing out massive bonuses:

Following the report that Wall Street firms had handed out $18.4 billion in bonuses last year amid the financial meltdown, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said he would look for "every possible legal means" to get the money returned.

"I'm going to be urging - in fact not urging, demanding - that the Treasury Department figures out some way to get the money back," Dodd said. "This is unacceptable."

WASHINGTON — President Obama branded Wall Street bankers “shameful” on Thursday for giving themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was deteriorating and the government was spending billions to bail out some of the nation’s most prominent financial institutions.

“That is the height of irresponsibility,” Mr. Obama said. “It is shameful. And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility.”

The Democratic leadership may drive me nuts in countless ways, but at least they're predictable. From a post I wrote here two weeks ago:

The following people are no longer allowed to make ANY sort of criticism of the Bailout(TARP) Bill:

President Obama and the following Senators:

Akaka (D-HI) Alexander (R-TN) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Burris (D-IL) Byrd (D-WV) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Clinton (D-NY) Conrad (D-ND) Dodd (D-CT) Durbin (D-IL) Feinstein (D-CA) Gregg (R-NH)

Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lugar (R-IN) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD)

Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Schumer (D-NY) Snowe (R-ME) Stabenow (D-MI) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI)

No complaints about oversight, because you didn't add any meaningful oversight provisions to the bill.

No complaints that the banks aren't lending money, because you didn't mandate that in the bill.

No complaints that the banks are still paying executive bonuses, because you chose not to make those provisions enforceable.

No complaints that you didn't see this coming, because you had 3 months to hold hearings and see first hand why the first 350 Billion dollar TARP bill was an extremely flawed bill.

To be perfectly honest I figured they'd wait a little longer than 2 weeks, you know, in order to not completely insult our intelligence.

While you definitely expect it from Dodd, seeing Obama get a case of Pelosi Syndrome is fairly infuriating. Not only could they have put these provisions into the original TARP bill, but as Chris Bowers points out, they still have the power to change this crap:

However, here is what you didn't hear from either President Obama or Senator Dodd as they blasted the bonuses: legislation they are blocking makes it possible to retroactively strip those bonuses. Two weeks ago, the House passed legislation, Finance Chair Barney Frank's HR 384, which retroactively strips recipients of bailout money from receiving bonuses (more in the extended entry):
Emhpasis mine:

[HR 384] Adds the stricter executive compensation limits from the auto bailout bill to firms that receive TARP money. The stricter limits include a ban on bonuses and incentives for to the 25 most highly compensated employees of a company, "any compensation plan that would encourage manipulation of such institution's reported earnings to enhance the compensation of any of its employees," and a mandate to divest in private airplanes. Notably, these stricter limits would apply retroactively to executives from companies that have already received TARP money.

This legislation was passed by the House only eight days ago, over the objections of all but 18 House Republicans. It is still be possible for Senate Democrats to pass a mirror to HR 384, and send it to President Obama's desk. In fact, such a bill would have to first be passed through the Banking Committee, chaired by Senator Dodd. Further, if Democratic Senators were urged to pass this legislation by the Obama administration, it is likely that such legislation could be passed next week, given the massive influence President Obama has with Senate Democrats. And then, poof, the excesses of the bonuses would be solved.

However, as reported on multiple occasions on Open Left, this simply isn't happening. Instead of passing this law, and stopping the bonuses, Senator Dodd and White House NEC chair Larry Summers simply exchanged letters of assurance. They could have stripped these bonuses, but they themselves chose not to do so.

If you don't support meaningful regulations on the TARP money, that's one thing. I can probably guess the asshole in your administration who told you this was good idea. But grandstanding about how "shameful" these bonuses are while blocking the legislation that would regulate them is just too much to take.

Stop it. Now.

Update: Obama mentions today that he will tackle the issue of executive pay in his plan for the rest of the bailout money. While this is a good sign, but there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered. First off, why would he oppose Frank's bill? His bill isn't that radical, and essentially legislates what Obama's been saying about the problems of the bailout. And who will control this oversight committee? If the names Summers or Geithner are anywhere involved, I'm not getting my hopes up.

The house is doing it's job here, and is giving the money for the second TARP with strings attached. I'm sure Obama would rather not have conditions on the money, and create the oversight framework himself, but that's not how our government works. And frankly I'd feel a lot more comfortable with Summers and Geithner working under some restrictions than having them make it up as they go along(a la Geithner and the Citigroup bailout).

Given their track record on these things, I'm pretty sure they've lost the benefit of the doubt.

In addition to the news of the potential executive oversight, the article was notable for including what has to be one of the dumbest things ever said by a US Senator:

In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged the administration to proceed with caution. "I think we're all appalled by these _ some of these executive salary arrangements and bonus arrangements and perks and all the rest," he said. "On the other hand, I really don't want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do. Then you truly have nationalized the business.

(Head Explodes)

Train of Thought Field Trip: OBAMA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE

Four years ago Internet Republicans rallied to the defense of Bush and Brownie, blaming the media for exaggerating the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Once the details became too horrific to downplay, the claims shifted to saying that the victims were actually to blame (if they weren’t so poor and/or black, this never would have happened! Bootstraps!), and that this was just more proof that the federal government fails every time it’s given the chance (can it really be called giving it a chance, with someone like Brownie placed behind the wheel by Bush? This is a philosophical question with no easy answer).

Now, ice storms across much of the eastern United States have left millions without electricity. While some people have died as a result of the frozen weather, the always-watchful eyes of the freepers have discovered something much more serious: Obama doesn’t care about white people. Here comes the truth that the liberal jew media won’t let you hear, taken straight from three excellent threads on Free Republic. First we start off with becksueb, who remembers Katrina a little bit differently than I do:

He should offer help. At least he should acknowledge them. President Bush was on TV 2 days before Katrina hit begging Blanco to ask for help so he could send in Fema to help evacuate the people.

See, that’s where I recall Bush dozing through a meeting where he was warned the levees were in danger of breaking, but… hey, same idea, right? Next Reg45 manages to add in childish name-calling and a bit of Al Gore rage in one concise post:

0bozo says: You can’t have an ice storm in the age of global warming.

Clever, right? 0 instead of O, and the next part is also the name of a clown… heh, clowns… Better stop laughing though, because Grampa Dave has what it takes to take this game to the next level:

Zer0 and his fellow racists hate white Americans and hope all of us/them freeze to death.

Zer0 is an insult because the first letter of the other nickname they gave him is a zero. Note that this one ends with a zero as well, so freepers theoretically might be able to create a nickname so infinitely recursive that the entire thing becomes a Möbius strip with no true end or beginning. I’m only half-joking when I say that freepers might end up destroying time and space with this one. Anways, Canedawg comes up and finally says what they’re all thinking:

There’s a lot of racist preachin’ going on in their churches- moreso when there aren’t cameras and recorders present.

Going on in THEIR churches- eh guys, catch who I’m referring to? THEM? On a side note, there are also pages and pages of threads in Free Republic where they ponder why African Americans rarely vote Republican. I can’t imagine that these two things are related, though. IbJensen comes along and ruins the game, though- he seems to have forgotten that you aren’t supposed to directly refer to THEM:

Jimmied Carter's infamous FEMA is only to be used to house and feed forever those cities whose population is largely African as those residents are
incapable of self-help.

Whoops, looks like someone is going to need to repeat Being Racist On The Internet 101: Barely Concealing It With Innuendo. NSNR also just signed up for the class:

Yes it is called get back at “Whitey,” and the msm is overly butt kissing.
The future and existence of the Caucasian Race is of no consequence to Osama/BLT terrorists.
Osama should be impeached for his worthless apathy of White Americans.

At first I thought he was playing the clever ‘misspell Obama’s name’ game, but after a few readings I’m beginning to suspect NSNR genuinely believes Osama bin Laden is president of the United States. From what I can gather from this post he thinks Osama was given power along with a bunch of radical sandwich fanatics? I’m going to ignore the content of the post, because I’m not sure how much more racism I can ta-

Hussein is busy giving interviews to Islamic media.

Great, I was wondering when someone would abandon the black angle and go for the Muslim one. Thanks SunnyBobo. Well unless anyone else has anything absurd to say I’ll just wrap it up here-

The Furher cannot be bothered by the suffering of the peasants.

Thank you, ConservativeParty. That’ll do, poster. That’ll do.